The Digital Renaissance: Review: City of Wolves

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Review: City of Wolves

City of Wolves by Kat Ross
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Previous Review of City of Storms

This is the second in what appears to be a four (4) book series following “The City of Storms” and we return to a dystopian world of magic where two competing views are at war with each others. The Via Sancta has echoes of the Catholic Church while the Via Libertas are nihilists (aka nightmages). This book also introduces a third faction … Witches (with an awesome twist). It has been long enough since I had finished the first book, it took me a little to orient myself to each of the three (3) primary POVs: Alexi - An inquisitor styled priest with a conscience; Malach - a nightmage with a heart; and Kasi - a cartomancer with a secret. Even the supporting characters (such as Lezarius) are complex enough to weave in their PoV from time to time … and the world itself is exquisite as you can recognize just enough to feel almost familiar (if you are any exposure to western religion/mythology and latin … and germanic/slavic languages). The various magic is generally tied to the concept of ley lines (which is typically manipulated with marks or objects … alchemy, cartomancy and lithomancy). If you get lost, there is a helpful glossary in the back.

With the second book joining the first on my favorites shelf … this is now an author I will buy on sight.

I was given this free advance review copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#CityOfWolves #BookSirens.

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My Ratings Explained ...

[ ***** ] Amazing Read - Perfect story, exciting, engrossing, well developed complex characters, solid plot with few to no holes, descriptive environments and place settings, great mystery elements, realistic dialogue, believable reactions and behaviors; a favorite that I can re-read many times.
[ **** ] Great Read - Highly entertaining and enjoyable, exciting storyline, well developed characters and settings, a few discrepancies but nothing that can’t be overlooked. Some aspect of the story was new/refreshing to me and/or intriguing. Recommended for everyone.
[ *** ] Good Read - Solid story with a 'good' ending, or has some other redeeming feature. Limited character development and/or over reliance on tropes. Noticeable discrepancies in world building and/or dialog/behavior that were distracting. I connected enough with the characters/world to read the entire series. Most of the books I read for fun are here. Recommended for fans of the genre.
[ ** ] Okay Read - Suitable for a brief, afternoon escape … flat or shallow characters with little to no development. Over the top character dialog and/or behavior. Poor world building with significant issues and/or mistakes indicating poor research. Excessive use of trivial detail, info dumps and/or pontification. Any issues with the story/characters are offset by some other aspect that I enjoyed. Not very memorable. May only appeal to a niche group of readers. Recommended for some (YMMV).
[ * ] Bad Read - Awkward and/or confusing writing style. Poor world building and/or unbelievable (or unlikeable) characters. Victimization, gaslighting, blatant abuse, unnecessary violence, child endangerment, or any other highly objectionable behaviors by Main characters. I didn't connect with the story at all; significant aspects of this story irritated me enough that I struggled to finished it. Series was abandoned. Not recommended.